Honduran special forces are struggling to keep children from fleeing to the US

[Judi Lynn]

Honduran special forces are struggling to keep children from fleeing to the US
Ioan GrilloJuly 24, 2014 12:22

Honduras is a top sender of the historic flow of unaccompanied child migrants to the US. Can this elite security force come to the rescue?

CORINTO, Honduras — Clad in flak jackets and bearing automatic rifles and side arms, elite forces are scouring the ragged countryside that straddles this border between Honduras and Guatemala.

The officers are used to fighting heavily armed drug cartels and murderous “mara” street gangs. But now they have a new mission: trying to stop the flow of children who are fleeing the country for the United States by the thousands.

“Honduras is not a prison. This is not an arrest operation. It is more a mission of rescue and information,” says Capt. Miguel Martinez, of the Honduran national police’s version of a SWAT unit, which is leading the campaign.

To stress its humanitarian function, officials dubbed the mobilization Operation Rescue Angels.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140724/honduras-unaccompanied-child-migrants-us-immigration

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